Thursday, April 16, 2009

For the first time in a month I made a visit to the Casino Arizona after work today. There are changes afoot.

Apparently they appealed to the state lawmakers and negotiated an increase in the maximum bet size. So in addition to $1,000 limits on the Black Jack tables they have changed some of the poker games.

The old "No Limit" game was really a spread limit game of 5-150. That means that the minimum bet was $5 and the maximum bet or raise was $150. The new bet limit is $500. So now they are running a 1-2 blind spread limit with the $500 max and a 3-5 blind spread limit with the same $500 cap.

These new games will play practically like true No-Limit cash games. There is good news and bad news for this change.

The bad news is that the old 5-150 game will probably die a quick death. This had become a very profitable game for me. My theory on the reason it was so profitable was that most players tried to treat it as a "No Limit" game. They were way too loose in calling raises with pocket pairs and suited connectors. It's fine to call with these hands if you can win your opponent's entire stack if you hit. But if you are limited to $150 increments and most of the players usually had less than $300 in front of them, your implied odds go way down.

The good news is that it will play like a true no limit game. I don't think I've ever made a $500 bet in a cash game so I think the it will be very rare that the limit is hit in the 1-2 game. Plus now I can play some of the speculative hands with the proper implied odds. Hopefully I play them better than my opponents and I can still make money in the game. I will also have the added benefit that the 1-2 game should attract more of the beginners and it is more appropriate for my bankroll.

In an ironic twist, I did not play any of these new games as I was there to meet Kory for some limit poker. I was up a quick $90 in a 4-8 game, but by the time Kory joined me at the table, I was only up $20. I managed to lose $73 for the session due to some bad cards and bad decisions.

All is right with the world though. After putting Jake to bed, I fired up Full Tilt and took $240 off the donkeys at .50-1 Pot Limit Omaha so it's another profitable day.